Frustrated, I take Harper’s hand. “This has to wait until I get out of my meeting. Don’t have Blake come to the office. I’ll go to him.” I start walking with Harper in tow.
“I’ll meet Blake,” Harper offers, keeping pace with me. “This has to be important. We need to know what it’s about, but you’re right. You need to focus. You need to protect this life you’ve created.”
I stop walking and press my hands to her shoulders. “I’ve created? What about our life, Harper?”
“Our new life, Eric. Our new life. I’m here. And I’m really, really glad to be here. Let me be a partner and deal with part of this today.”
Relief washes over me, my tension over her leaving, a part of that deep-rooted, inner demon that possesses me. The one that tells me everyone I love leaves. Not that I’ve given anyone but my mother the chance. Not until Harper. “We need to face this problem together,” I say. “And I want you in the negotiations.”
“Me?”
“If you’re going to play a role in the NFL operation, you need to understand it from the ground up. And you need to know it’s what you want.”
She steps closer to me, her eyes searching my eyes. “I’m not going to let you down. Not now. Not ever.”
She’s not talking about the NFL deal. She’s talking about that life I’ve pressed her to claim. “Nor me, you, baby. Which is why we’re doing this day, and this life, together. All of it. Come on.” I take her hand and start walking, aware of Savage at our backs. I feel him there, and the truth is, on a day when I have to put my mind someplace other than this problem, back-up is good. Savage is not good, but he’s moral, which makes him even better. He walks a line. I get him. He gets me.
I also get my brother.
Too well.
He doesn’t know how well, but he will soon.
We cross the street and I have a sudden awareness wash over me. Someone is watching us beyond Savage. I pull Harper closer, under my arm. I don’t tell her what I feel. I don’t want to scare her. We’re a half block from the building when my phone buzzes with a text. I slow our pace in case it’s an alert to detour, nonchalantly reaching for my phone to read a message from Savage: I know you feel the eyes on you. I do, too, but I don’t see them. We have men at the building. I have another man with me. You’re covered. Get her inside and we’ll lock you down.
“Everything okay?” Harper asks, shivering and I don’t think it’s the cold winter day, I’m only just now noticing for the fires of hell are around us right now. She feels what I feel. She just doesn’t have the training to know what it means.
“Great, baby.” I stop walking in front of the building. “We’re here.” I kiss her and I’d open the door for her, but Smith is there, opening it for us.
“At your service,” he says his eyes meeting mine.
I give him a quick nod and Harper hurries inside, a little extra lift to her step. Oh yes. She feels the urgency in me. She feels that we’re being watched. I wrap my arm around her and guide her to security where we obtain a long-term pass for her. “You’re official now,” I say, as we stop at the elevator bank and I punch the call button.
She smiles, a beautiful smile, all the nerves she’d been throwing from the sidewalk outside, fading away into happiness. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. That we’re doing this.” She kisses my cheek. “You’re going to—”
I drag her to me. “Make you come on my desk, and then later on your new desk.”
She blushes a pretty pink. “You could get me fired.”
“I know the boss.”
“Hmmm. Well, if you know the boss.”
“Boss? I’m right here.”
Savage. “Fucking Savage,” I growl, but it’s not a sincere growl. I eye him over her head and he gives me a barely perceivable shake of his head. He didn’t find those eyes that were on us and he’s nervous. Me fucking, too, because the assassin being gone doesn’t mean anything besides he’s gone. Someone else could have taken his place. My brother is insane. He’s desperate.
The elevator door opens and Harper glances at Savage. “Fucking Savage. Go to your room.”
“Watch it there, mama,” he warns. “Your man there might have to spank you for me.”
She laughs and I do not. Savage’s comment does not sit well. Fuck. I’m in all kinds of places with Harper I’ve never been with a woman. My hand settles at her hip and I walk her into the elevator, making damn sure I place myself in between her and Savage. I stare straight ahead as the doors shut and then say, “Don’t talk about my woman’s ass in any context ever again.”
Harper laughs. Savage doesn’t. I glance down at her and she pushes to her toes and whispers, “I kind of liked your hand on my ass.”
I grind my teeth against the sudden thickening of my cock that doesn’t last long. The elevator doors open and I find Grayson waiting on us in the hallway with Blake standing next to him, both men in jeans and collared shirts. Blake, who I told to fucking wait.
With a flex of my fingers at her back, Harper steps forward and I join her, Savage immediately at my opposite side. “You have a minute for me?” Blake asks.